The US loves 3G more than Europe

By a whole 0.1 per cent...

It might have been a long time coming, but the US has finally overtaken Western Europe in terms of 3G usage.

The stats from comScore, which show the US has a 28.4 per cent uptake in 3G technology, are especially impressive when one provider (T-Mobile) doesn't even have a 3G network in the area.

This shows the US is starting to want more feature rich content from its mobiles, like video and audio on the move... though nobody wants to video call. Still. So why do all the handset manufacturers keep harping on about it, eh?

Billion pound license

3G subscribers have been hard to find in Europe, despite a multi-billion pound / euro bidding war from the networks for 3G licenses, trickling in at just 28.3 per cent usage.

However, the 3G infrastructure in Europe is much deeper, with many countries already well into 7.2mbps HSDPA, allowing wireless internet to become a reality.

So don't worry just yet....our cousins over the water might be jumping on the bandwagon now, but the Europeans can always say 'we had it first...'.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phones and Tablets Editor

Gareth (Twitter, Google+) has been part of the mobile phone industry from the era of the brick to the tiny device in the pocket... and now watching them grow back up to behemothic proportions once more. He's spent five years dissecting all the top phones in the world as TechRadar's Phones and Tablets Editor, and still can't resist answering the dreaded question - "which new phone should I get?" - with 15 choices.